Amfac Is Planning to Sell Its Non-Hawaii Businesses

By CALVIN SIMS

Published: December 14, 1987

Amfac Inc., a diversified services company with major real estate holdings in Hawaii, said yesterday that, as part of a restructuring, it planned to sell all of its businesses in the continental United States and concentrate on its Hawaiian operations.

The San Francisco-based conglomerate, which has interests in distribution, retailing, hotel and land development, food processing and agriculture, had been expected since February to announce a restructuring in which it divested many of its assets. The company has lost about $148 million since 1983, when it first starting trimming its operations.

In a related announcement, Amfac said that Richard L. Griffith had been named president and chief executive officer. Mr. Griffith, 56 years old, is currently an executive vice president of Amfac and chairman of Amfac-Hawaii, its land and agriculture division. He replaces Ronald L. Sloan, who was ousted on Nov. 20. The slow pace Mr. Sloan set in revamping the company was the reason later given for the ouster by Henry A. Walker Jr., Amfac's chairman.

Under the restructuring, Amfac will sell all its non-Hawaii businesses, including Amfac Distribution, which has health care and electrical supply operations; Amfac Resorts, which operates seven resorts and hotels, and Amfac Foods, which includes Lamb-Weston, a potato processor, and Monterey Mushrooms, a large mushroom grower.

Amfac said that its investment bankers, Morgan Stanley & Company and Salomon Brothers, had estimated the value of the businesses slated for sale to be between $600 million and $750 million before taxes. The company noted, however, that the estimates had not been verified by independent appraisals.

The company said that shareholders would receive the net proceeds from the sale, after it paid off about $230 million in long-term debt.

Amfac, the largest private employer in Hawaii, said that it would focus on its two core Hawaii businesses: Amfac Hawaii, a land development concern that owns about 56,400 acres of land and leases about 94,000 acres, some of which are used to cultivate sugar, and Liberty House, a retailing chain that operates department stores and resort and specialty shops. Liberty House had $250 million in revenues in 1986.

The company said that it planned to set up a joint venture with outside investors that would purchase about half of its Hawaiian real estate for cash. Most of this land contributes little to the company's earnings as sugar plantations in relation to its value if rezoned as commercial or residential property. 'Most Realistic Course'

''Our plan to retain these properties and to develop them over the long term with compatible financial partners is the most realistic course of action open to us in terms of realizing immediate potential, given the political and legislative climate in Hawaii, while at the same time preserving significant long-term value for our shareholders,'' Mr. Walker, Amfac's chairman, said in a statement.